Historical
Chapter 1
1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah,[a] in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah.
The Day of the Lord: Judgment on Judah
2 I will completely sweep away all things
from the face of the land—oracle of the Lord.
3 I will sweep away human being and beast alike,
I will sweep away the birds of the sky,
and the fish of the sea.
I will make the wicked stumble;
I will eliminate the people
from the face of the land—oracle of the Lord.(A)
4 I will stretch out my hand against Judah,
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
I will eliminate from this place
the last vestige of Baal,
the name of the idolatrous priests.
5 And those who bow down on the roofs
to the host of heaven,[b]
And those who bow down to the Lord
but swear by Milcom;(B)
6 And those who have turned away from the Lord,
and those who have not sought the Lord,
who have not inquired of him.
7 Silence in the presence of the Lord God!
for near is the day of the Lord,
Yes, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice,
he has consecrated his guests.[c](C)
8 On the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
I will punish the officials and the king’s sons,
and all who dress in foreign apparel.
9 I will punish, on that day,
all who leap over the threshold,[d]
Who fill the house of their master
with violence and deceit.
10 On that day—oracle of the Lord—
A cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
a wail from the Second Quarter,[e]
loud crashing from the hills.
11 Wail, O inhabitants of Maktesh!
for all the merchants are destroyed,
all who weigh out silver, done away with.
12 At that time,
I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
I will punish the people
who settle like dregs in wine,[f]
Who say in their hearts,
“The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do harm.”
13 Their wealth shall be given to plunder
and their houses to devastation;
They will build houses,
but not dwell in them;
They will plant vineyards,
but not drink their wine.(D)
14 Near is the great day of the Lord,
near and very swiftly coming.
The sound of the day of the Lord! Piercing—
there a warrior shrieks!
15 A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
a day of thick black clouds,(E)
16 A day of trumpet blasts and battle cries
against fortified cities,
against lofty battlements.(F)
17 I will hem the people in
till they walk like the blind,
because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their bowels like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them.
On the day of the Lord’s wrath,
in the fire of his passion,
all the earth will be consumed.
For he will make an end, yes, a sudden end,
of all who live on the earth.(G)
Chapter 2
1 [g]Gather, gather yourselves together,
O nation without shame!
2 Before you are driven away,
like chaff that disappears;
Before there comes upon you
the blazing anger of the Lord;
Before there comes upon you
the day of the Lord’s anger.
3 Seek the Lord,
all you humble of the land,
who have observed his law;
Seek justice,
seek humility;
Perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the Lord’s anger.(H)
Judgment on the Nations
4 For Gaza shall be forsaken,
and Ashkelon shall be a waste,
Ashdod they shall drive out at midday,
and Ekron[h] shall be uprooted.(I)
5 Ah! You who dwell by the seacoast,
the nation of Cherethites,[i]
the word of the Lord is against you!
O Canaan, land of the Philistines,
I will leave you to perish without an inhabitant!
6 You shall become fields for shepherds,
and folds for flocks.
7 The seacoast shall belong
to the remnant of the house of Judah;
by the sea they shall pasture.
In the houses of Ashkelon
they shall lie down in the evening.
For the Lord their God will take care of them,
and bring about their restoration.
8 I have heard the taunts uttered by Moab,
and the insults of the Ammonites,[j]
When they taunted my people
and made boasts against their territory.(J)
9 Therefore, as I live—
oracle of the Lord of hosts—
the God of Israel,
Moab shall become like Sodom,
the Ammonites like Gomorrah:
A field of weeds,
a salt pit,
a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
the survivors of my nation dispossess them.
10 This will be the recompense for their pride,
because they taunted and boasted against
the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord shall inspire them with terror
when he makes all the gods of earth waste away;
Then the distant shores of the nations,
each from its own place,
shall bow down to him.
12 You too, O Cushites,[k]
shall be slain by the sword of the Lord.(K)
13 He will stretch out his hand against the north,
to destroy Assyria;
He will make Nineveh a waste,
dry as the desert.(L)
14 In her midst flocks shall lie down,
all the wild life of the hollows;
The screech owl and the desert owl
shall roost in her columns;
The owl shall hoot from the window,
the raven croak from the doorway.(M)
15 Is this the exultant city[l]
that dwelt secure,
That told itself,
“I and there is no one else”?
How it has become a waste,
a lair for wild animals!
Those who pass by it
hiss, and shake their fists!
Chapter 3
Jerusalem Reproached
1 Ah! Rebellious and polluted,
the tyrannical city![m]
2 It listens to no voice,
accepts no correction;
In the Lord it has not trusted,
nor drawn near to its God.(N)
3 Its officials within it
are roaring lions;
Its judges are desert wolves
that have no bones to gnaw by morning.(O)
4 Its prophets are reckless,
treacherous people;
Its priests profane what is holy,
and do violence to the law.(P)
5 But the Lord in its midst is just,
doing no wrong;
Morning after morning rendering judgment
unfailingly, at dawn;
the wicked, however, know no shame.
6 I have cut down nations,
their battlements are laid waste;
I have made their streets deserted,
with no one passing through;
Their cities are devastated,
with no one dwelling in them.(Q)
7 I said, “Surely now you will fear me,
you will accept correction;
They cannot fail to see
all I have brought upon them.”
Yet the more eagerly they have done
all their corrupt deeds.
The Nations Punished and Jerusalem Restored
8 Therefore, wait for me—oracle of the Lord—
until the day when I arise as accuser;
For it is my decision to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
In order to pour out upon them my wrath,
all my blazing anger;
For in the fire of my passion
all the earth will be consumed.(R)
9 For then I will make pure
the speech of the peoples,
That they all may call upon the name of the Lord,
to serve him with one accord;
10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia
and as far as the recesses of the North,
they shall bring me offerings.
11 On that day
You will not be ashamed
of all your deeds,
when you rebelled against me;
For then I will remove from your midst
the proud braggarts,
And you shall no longer exalt yourself
on my holy mountain.
12 But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
Who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord—(S)
13 the remnant of Israel.
They shall do no wrong
and speak no lies;
Nor shall there be found in their mouths
a deceitful tongue;
They shall pasture and lie down
with none to disturb them.(T)
14 Shout for joy, daughter Zion!
sing joyfully, Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
daughter Jerusalem!(U)
15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you,
he has turned away your enemies;
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
16 On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, Zion,
do not be discouraged!
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior,
Who will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
Who will sing joyfully because of you,(V)
18 as on festival days.
I will remove disaster from among you,
so that no one may recount your disgrace.
19 At that time I will deal
with all who oppress you;
I will save the lame,
and assemble the outcasts;
I will give them praise and renown
in every land where they were shamed.(W)
20 At that time I will bring you home,
and at that time I will gather you;
For I will give you renown and praise,
among all the peoples of the earth,
When I bring about your restoration
before your very eyes, says the Lord.(X)
Chapter 1
Prophetic Call to Work on the Temple. 1 On the first day of the sixth month in the second year[a] of Darius the king, the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel,(A) son of Shealtiel, and to the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak:(B) 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: This people has said: “Now is not the time to rebuild the house of the Lord.”
3 Then the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: 4 Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?[b](C)
5 Now thus says the Lord of hosts:
Reflect on your experience![c]
6 You have sown much, but have brought in little;
you have eaten, but have not been satisfied;(D)
You have drunk, but have not become intoxicated;
you have clothed yourselves, but have not been warmed;
And the hired worker labors for a bag full of holes.
7 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Reflect on your experience!
8 Go up into the hill country;
bring timber, and build the house
that I may be pleased with it,
and that I may be glorified,[d] says the Lord.
9 You expected much, but it came to little;
and what you brought home, I blew away.
Why is this?—oracle of the Lord[e] of hosts—
Because my house is the one which lies in ruins,
while each of you runs to your own house.
10 Therefore, the heavens withheld the dew,
and the earth its yield.
11 And I have proclaimed a devastating heat[f]
upon the land and upon the mountains,
Upon the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil,
upon all that the ground brings forth;
Upon human being and beast alike,
and upon all they produce.
Response of Leaders and People. 12 Then Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak, and all the remnant of the people[g] obeyed the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, since the Lord their God had sent him; thus the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, proclaimed to the people as the message of the Lord: I am with you!—oracle of the Lord.
14 And so the Lord stirred up the spirit of the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and the spirit of the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people,(E) so that they came to do the work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year[h] of Darius the king.
Chapter 2
Assurance of God’s Presence. 1 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month,[i] the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: 2 Speak to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and to the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak, and to the remnant of the people:
3 Who is left among you[j]
who saw this house in its former glory?
And how do you see it now?
Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?(F)
4 Now be strong, Zerubbabel—oracle of the Lord—
be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, high priest,
Be strong, all you people of the land—oracle of the Lord—
and work! For I am with you—oracle of the Lord of hosts.
5 This is the commitment I made to you
when you came out of Egypt.
My spirit remains in your midst;
do not fear!
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts:[k]
In just a little while,
I will shake the heavens and the earth,(G)
the sea and the dry land.
7 I will shake all the nations,
so that the treasures of all the nations will come in.
And I will fill this house with glory—
says the Lord of hosts.(H)
8 Mine is the silver and mine the gold—oracle of the Lord of hosts.
9 Greater will be the glory of this house(I)
the latter more than the former—says the Lord of hosts;
And in this place I will give you peace—[l]
oracle of the Lord of hosts.
Priestly Ruling with Prophetic Interpretation.[m] 10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month in the second year[n] of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet: 11 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests for a ruling:[o] 12 If someone carries sanctified meat in the fold of a garment and the fold touches bread, soup, wine, oil, or any other food, do they become sanctified? “No,” the priests answered. 13 Then Haggai asked: “If a person defiled from contact with a corpse touches any of these, do they become defiled?” The priests answered, “They become defiled.”(J) 14 Then Haggai replied:
So is this people,[p] and so is this nation
in my sight—oracle of the Lord—
And so is all the work of their hands;
what they offer there is defiled.
15 Now reflect,[q] from this day forward—before you set stone to stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 what was your experience?
When one went to a heap of grain for twenty ephahs,
there were only ten;
When one went to a vat to draw fifty ephahs,[r]
there were only twenty.(K)
17 I struck you, and all the work of your hands,
with searing wind, blight, and hail,
yet you did not return to me—oracle of the Lord.(L)
18 Reflect from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month.[s] From the day on which the temple of the Lord was founded, reflect!
19 Is there still seed in the storehouse?
Have the vine, the fig, the pomegranate,
and the olive tree still not borne fruit?
From this day, I will bless you.[t]
Future Hope.[u] 20 The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month:[v] 21 Speak to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah:
I will shake the heavens and the earth;
22 I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms,
and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.
I will overthrow the chariots and their riders,
and the riders with their horses
will fall by each other’s swords.(M)
23 On that day—oracle of the Lord of hosts—I will take you, my servant, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel—oracle of the Lord—and I will make you like a signet ring,[w] for I have chosen you—oracle of the Lord of hosts.(N)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.